Comments on: Aleksandr Petrov, Russian paint-on-glass animator.http://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator/
Comments on MetaFilter post Aleksandr Petrov, Russian paint-on-glass animator.Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:33:25 -0800Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:33:25 -0800en-ushttp://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss60Aleksandr Petrov, Russian paint-on-glass animator.http://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator
The gray Cherkassian cow lived alone in a shed attached to a railroad attendant's tiny house on the vast Soviet grasslands. The cow had a calf, and the railroad attendant's son liked the calf very much. Then the calf was taken away and the cow became very melancholy. She never had a chance to tell her story. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9ZtxlZuIag">This is her story.</a> (Contains Russian animation.) <br /><br />Russian paint-on-glass animator Александр Петров | Aleksandr Petrov has been mentioned several times before, but he's never been the subject of an FPP.
«Корова» (<i>The Cow</i>, 1989), which is linked above, was Petrov's capstone project at the end of a two-year course of professional studies in animation, during which he was instructed by the renowned Soviet animator Фёдор Хитрук | Fyodor Khitruk. Khitruk (b. 1917), a landmark figure in Soviet animation, has had an extroardinarily rich career beginning in the late 1930s and lasting well into the 1990s. He directed the Russian <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3yhBEQlH_Y">Winnie-the-Pooh</a>, beloved by Mefites, as well as 1968's satirical <i>Film, Film, Film</i> (<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/101378/Film-lovers-are-sick-people">previously</a>).
Petrov was born in 1957 in a village near <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYwb1mUkVkM">Yaroslavl</a> to working-class parents. From a young age he showed an interest in art and photography, reportedly winning his first camera — a <a href="http://microsites.lomography.com/smena/">Smena</a> — in a drawing contest at the age of ten. Upon graduation, he entered the Yaroslavl <acronym title="&lsquo;художественное училище&rsquo;">vocational art school</acronym>. In 1982 he began studies at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerasimov_Institute_of_Cinematography">Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography</a> in Moscow, working under Ivan Ivanov-Vano (who helmed some of the most prominent Soviet animation projects of the century). Between 1981 and 1987 Petrov worked with <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Cuw1vHuxITYC&printsec=frontcover#PPA56,M1">Armenfilm</a> in Yerevan, Armenia, and at the Sverdlovsk Film Studio in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yekaterinburg">Yekaterinburg</a> (former Sverdlovsk), contributing to<ul><li>«По щучьему велению» | As the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esox">Pike</a> Commands (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj8Gm_eMwQA">1</a> | <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlFYRmiBM0E">2</a>, 1984)</li><li>«<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWoW_mxTOZI">Воробьишко</a>» | The Little Sparrow (1984, based on a story by Maxim Gorky)</li><li>«<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb7V-zLSUPY">Добро пожаловать!</a>» | Welcome! (1986, based on Dr. Seuss's <i>Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose</i>)</li></ul>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;and several others.
<i>The Cow</i> is, of course, based on the short story of the same name by Андрей Платонов | Andrey Platonov (<a href="http://www.nybooks.com/books/authors/andrey-platonov/">NYRB</a>, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/18/andrei-platonov-robert-chandler">Guardian</a>, <a href="http://www.languagehat.com/archives/003945.php">Languagehat</a>). An English translation is available as part of the Platonov short story collection <i>Soul</i>.
Petrov's next project was «Сон смешного человека» | <i>The Dream of a Ridiculous Man</i> (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot45HZNRyzM">1</a> | <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn1wEt-JNEA">2</a>, 1992), after an eponymous story by Dostoevsky (<a href="http://www.kiosek.com/dostoevsky/library/ridiculousman.txt">translated</a> by the inimitable <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/07/051107fa_fact_remnick?currentPage=all">Constance Garnett</a>). Like "The Cow," it won several international awards. The story is a mystical meditation on human nature narrated by a demon-haunted, suicidal man. "Perhaps it was not a dream at all. Hitherto I have concealed it, but now I will tell this part as well. It was I who corrupted them."
In 1996 Petrov completed «<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MpAr3rcEg0">Русалка</a>» | The Mermaid, an original story by Marina Vishnevetskaya, who had written for animation since 1983, often with supernatural and folk-mystical themes. A young monk encounters a mermaid, a spirit of the drowned damned. He is saved by his master, who had betrayed the girl in his youth.
Petrov next spent two and a half years in Montreal at work on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Man_and_the_Sea_%281999_film%29">an animated version</a> of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea"/"Le Vieil Homme et la Mer." It went on to win the Oscar for best animated short, as well as a string of other awards. It was the first animated film to be shown in the IMAX format. (The first to be <i>shot</i> in IMAX was the depressing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/More_%281998_film%29">More</a> from 1998.)<ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Niu0oUGvUrA">in the original French</a></li><li>terrible English dub: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l6nCMmWQFQ">1</a> | <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GkHJkd_5KQ">2</a></li></ul>
In 2003 Petrov contributed a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnjwApHxh5U">short</a> to the Winter Days project (<a href="http://www.metafilter.com/109456/">previously</a>).
Petrov's most recent milestone is 2006's «Моя любовь» | My Love, based on a novel by the Russian emigré author <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Shmelyov">Ivan Shmelyov</a>. Set in middle-class 19th-century Moscow, the story concerns <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1893/1/23/a-russian-gymnasium-we-take-the/">gymnasium</a> student Anton (Tony) and the consequences of his irresponsible adolescent romances: one with a woman older than him and the other with the family maid. The film received criticism for sentimentality and putting techical accomplishment ahead of artistry.<ul><li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_RPq5pC42w">original Russian</a></li><li>with quality Spanish subtitles (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MVbnaczhSo">1</a> | <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0yb6Y4PBg">2</a>)</li><li>terrible video quality and awful English subtitles (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq7nLVoaPX8">1</a> | <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN_gV2qLaYk">2</a>)</li></ul>Since 2006 Petrov seems to have gone into hiatus, only completing a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsmHn1ZJcAY">TV commercial</a> for the Persil manufacturer <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henkel">Henkel</a>'s Schwarzkopf line of haircare products. A cohort of students he has recruited since 2007 recently released an inaugural short: «<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flCpfrQojg8">Ещё раз!</a>» | One More Time, a short pastiche of the happy, light-filled Soviet 1930s. (The familiar tune in the background is a popular 30s paso doble called "Für dich, Rio Rita." Here it is with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJTfZ7_yvlY">Otto Dobrindt und sein Orchester</a>, and with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ2jvoHX8nM">Marek Weber &amp; His Orchestra</a>. Apparently no connection to the eponymous 1927 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rio_Rita_%28musical%29">musical play</a>.
A word about the animation style: Petrov is one of the few practitioners of "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paint-on-glass_animation">paint on glass</a>" animation. The technique consists in the application of translucent layers of oil paints to a glass plate. A single plate may be used for multiple shots, because the paint remains liquid and may be carefully manipulated using fingers or brushes. Here is a Russian-language <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmppCctohxo">interview</a> in which Petrov demonstrates his extremely painstaking method. He shows a few storyboard sketches around 1:05 and begins work on a still around 2:10. The amount of effort spent is literally astounding.post:www.metafilter.com,2012:site.111744Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:13:49 -0800NomyteanimationrussianpaintonglassartanimatoranimatorsBy: koeselitzhttp://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator#4134804
Holy cow.comment:www.metafilter.com,2012:site.111744-4134804Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:33:25 -0800koeselitzBy: mittenshttp://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator#4134932
I wish I knew what the little boy said at the end of <i>The Cow</i>...without it, I can't tell whether to be happy or sad. (I suspect sad.) But how beautiful. I watched the interview, and was startled to see him not just painting but <i>fingerpainting</i> on glass, which I assume explains some of the thicker textures in <i>The Cow</i>...but the whole thing is just amazing.
(Also note: Calf eyelashes apparently make me want to cry.)comment:www.metafilter.com,2012:site.111744-4134932Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:49:38 -0800mittensBy: louche mustachiohttp://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator#4134948
I saw <i>The Cow</i> at a festival in.. 1990, I think.. and remember being astonished by the beauty of the animation. I love the richness of it. <i>Dream of a Ridiculous Man</i> is also absolutely gorgeous.
It's a difficult, painstaking process, but magic is really hard.comment:www.metafilter.com,2012:site.111744-4134948Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:03:05 -0800louche mustachioBy: demiurgehttp://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator#4134994
mittens: Sad.
Here's a rough literal translation from my wife:
<blockquote>We had a cow. When she was alive, we ate her milk: mother, father, me and her son, the calf. There was enough for everyone. Then they sold the calf for food, and the cow started to suffer, and soon died from a train, and we ate her too, because she's beef. The cow gave us everything, milk, her son, meat, skin, insides, and bone. I remember our cow, and I won't forget.</blockquote>comment:www.metafilter.com,2012:site.111744-4134994Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:34:32 -0800demiurgeBy: zambonihttp://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator#4135491
So it's a Soviet <i>Giving Tree, then?</i>comment:www.metafilter.com,2012:site.111744-4135491Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:13:09 -0800zamboniBy: xeterehttp://www.metafilter.com/111744/Aleksandr-Petrov-Russian-paintonglass-animator#4135925
Очень хорошо! Мне нравица «Big time»
(Very good, I like it big time) I think, Russian is a bit rusty.
But as someone who doesn't really "get" animation, this is extraordinary, a window into the Russian soul.comment:www.metafilter.com,2012:site.111744-4135925Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:57:51 -0800xetere